


Fathers In Love

by pinkheichou



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Parents, Anal Sex, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, I'm bad at this, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Porn with Feelings, Shance Secret Santa 2016, Shiro is a hot daddy ofc, Single Parent Lance, Single Parent Shiro, Single Parents, Smut, Temporarily Unrequited Love, bc damn stop whining and pining and fuck already ffs, but hey it has smut, it's clear from the very begining that they belong together wtf, sorry to whoever reads this, the angst writer i am i had to make this pining a little angsty haha, this is my first time writing about pining and it made me yell at my phone screen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 19:05:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9003673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkheichou/pseuds/pinkheichou
Summary: What both didn’t know, though, was that their love was mutual.

  They were in love with the other, but neither of them did realize that.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [glameowstic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glameowstic/gifts).



> This fic is gifted to tumblr user [iamwhoremoans](http://www.iamwhoremoans.tumblr.com). I'm your Secret Santa! *^* I hope you'll enjoy single parent!Lance and single parent!Shiro pining for each other <3
> 
> (Excuse my messy writing style haha)

“It seems that your son has become good friends with mine.”

Lance picked up his little son Louis and turned his gaze to the person who had talked to him just now; their voice had been so deep but soft.

When his eyes settled on that man’s face, he was met with a smile and dark eyes looking at him smoothly. The person in front of him was carrying his son as well, having a solid hold on that little child as he focused his attention on Lance.

He was a tall and muscular man, dark-haired with a little streak of white colouring his front locks. There was also a little scar running across his nose, but overall he was a stunning and hot male with an appealing and mature aura.  

It was only now that Lance caught himself staring at that stranger a bit too long, averting his eyes as soon as he realized that. Out of slight embarrassment, his cheeks tainted a light pink as he mumbled, “Yeah… I guess.”

“Yes, daddy! Finn and I became friends!” Louis yelled at Lance in a happy and shrilling voice as he pounded his father’s chest in excitement. Then he turned around and Lance had to watch out and grip his son firmly or else he could slip from his hold any second. “Right, Finn?!”

“Yes!” The other boy answered and said to his own father, “Papa, you heard that? I have a friend now!”

Finn’s father patted his head fondly. “Yes, I heard it. It’s good to see you having found someone to play with.” His son nodded eagerly.

The man glanced back at Lance. Both of them were positioned in front of the kindergarten they picked up their children just now and it happened that those two boys left the institution at the same time so that the men got a chance to meet the parent of their son’s friend.

“Takashi Shirogane. You can call me Shiro. Nice to meet you.” That man whose name was Shiro stretched an open palm towards Lance, sending him a genuine smile.

“Lance. Lance McClain. Nice to meet you, too.” Lance shook Shiro’s hand, not taking his eyes off him. He couldn’t quite name it, but there was some invisible force that prevented him from looking anywhere else than Shiro’s face. At the same time he was fond of “Shiro” right away and began to gradually become intrigued in knowing more about that male.

If their sons were friends, they could be friends as well, right?

“I’m glad that Finn could actually find a friend on his very first day in kindergarten.” Shiro went on, stroking his son’s head. “He is a rather shy boy, you know?”

“Oh, I see.” Lance replied. Louis, however, was the complete opposite. Like father, like son. Louis was just as outgoing and straightforward as his own father was and used to be as child. “I can only say the same. This is Louis’ first day here as well. We moved to this city two weeks ago.”

“One month.” Shiro retorted and smiled again. Those two words were enough for Lance to understand what he meant.

Two paternal parents who moved to the same city a few weeks before happened to bring their kids to the same kindergarten and – what a coincidence – their sons also became friends.

Lance adjusted his hold on Louis, switching the side of hip he was leaning against. “Well then. I don’t want to waste your time anymore.”

“You aren’t.” Shiro clarified quickly—as though he didn’t want to end their conversation.

But maybe Lance got it all wrong and that was why he went on. “Anyway, I’m sure Finn’s mother is waiting for her son to come home already.” he said in a sweet voice, looking at Finn in particular who had his head buried into Shiro’s chest.

“I’m a single father.” It came out of his mouth so casually, even though this wasn’t a topic to take lightly, so he thought. And the next second Lance regretted his words, worrying that the reason behind Shiro’s single-parenting could be a serious once and thus he feared that he had picked up a sensitive topic.

“O-Oh, I’m sorry—”

“It’s okay. I’m fine they way everything is. And Finn is fine, too. Only that matters.”

A wave of relief washed over Lance as he loosened up again and released the breath he didn’t know he was holding in. “How long shall we keep up our talk to find out what else we have in common?” This time Lance was beaming a smile at Shiro, Louis' legs dangling at his sides as he counted the buttons on Lance’s shirt loudly, not listening much to the conversation the fathers were having at the moment.

Shiro’s expression altered to a slightly surprised one. “You…?”

“Yep. I may not have a wife or partner by my side right now,” he kissed Louis’s head, squishing his cheeks lightly then, “but this guy here is my everything. And only that matters.”

There was a little moment in which Shiro and Lance didn’t do more than to exchange stares, smiling. “Well, I'm free right now and would really like to invite you to some tea or coffee.” Shiro began first and cocked his head to the side. “Provided your question wasn't as a joke.”

It took Lance a split of second before he grasped that Shiro was talking about the fact that they had quite a few things in common, hence he came up with that idea.

“Uh, sure. I’m free at the moment. I think Finn and Louis would also like the idea of playing a bit more together. Right?” Lance looked down at his son who looked up as bliss sparkled in his eyes, a big smile stretching over his face as he exclaimed as loud “Yes!”.

Finn giggled a sound of approval as well, his head flung to the direction of Louis once before he pillowed his face into Shiro’s chest again.

Shiro raised one brow at Lance. “Well then.”

***

Shiro, Lance, Finn and Louis had a nice time together. While the kids were playing in Finn’s room, seeming to have a lot of fun that the fathers could tell from their screeching voices that literally diffused through the closed door and reached the living room.

There, Lance and Shiro were sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee as they told each other stories of their lives. Apparently, Shiro was older than Lance and had already hit the 30 years mark, they had many things in common regarding hobbies and their private life, but Lance seemed to be the one who had experience far more exciting things in his life before he became a father whilst Shiro had planned from the very beginning to graduate from college, find a work that paid well, marry and start a family.

Not everything went according to plan in life, though. Shiro had to experience that himself. It may be true that technically he had reached all of the things he’d ever wished for, but… it didn’t last long. How could he know that his wife wouldn’t want to raise a kid anymore just because it hadn’t been the way she had imagined it. After years of being wedded to her, Shiro was appalled at what kind of woman (and mother) he’d married. That she abandoned her husband and – most importantly – her own child was a sign for Shiro to break up with her. One year after their divorce, he had decided to move and start a new chapter in his life; together with his son who sadly had to experience how his own mother walked away from his life.

But now everything was alright. Finn didn’t miss his mother as much as he used to at the beginning and Shiro did everything to be a good father. Being a single parent wasn’t easy at all and it was good luck that Finn agreed on going to kindergarten, even though he was a very timid person and couldn’t interact and socialize with many children. But like this, it was easier for Shiro to go to work in the morning up to the afternoon and take care of his child after that.

Lance was the kind of father who hadn’t actually planned becoming one; at least not at an age that wasn’t over 30. He had barely graduated from college when his girlfriend of 7 months told him that she was pregnant. At that time, he had been too overhwelmed by this and didn’t know at all what to do. Despite of being clumsy and a dork sometimes and causing some unnecessary problems, he had wanted to take responsibility for it. Which he couldn’t say at all about his former girlfriend. She had namely left him after two years with the explanation that she hadn’t enjoyed her life too much yet, so taking the role of a mother was too early for her and that she still had so much she wanted to do—without having to carry a child around. Mad at her selfish reasoning, Lance had told her to leave him (he had spat at her an angered “Fuck off!”) and to not come back ever again. Up until now he hadn’t heard anything from her and to be honest it was better like that. Louis was fine with having only a father, though sometimes even he would ask where his mother was whenever he’d see children together with their mother and father. In addition, he was the most grateful to his parents who had supported him fully at hard times and enabled and helped him to live a decent life as father and working person.

The time where Lance and Shiro told each other their background story of becoming a father carried a deep weight and created a melancholic atmosphere, therefore at some point Lance started telling about his life in college and the exciting things he did and experienced back at that time—or the things he didn’t do but still told Shiro out of fun.

His stories awoke a relieving feeling to brighten the mood and there was a little flutter inside his chest that blossomed as soon as he heard Shiro laugh to one of the stories he’d told him just now.

Lance was filled with joy as Shiro rode out his laughter, one of his hand holding his stomach. Soon, his laughter faded. “Oh god, Lance. This is too iconic. Now tell me. Which one of those stories you told me are a joke?”

“I’m not joking.” he insisted, grinning, and both of them knew that Lance made up most of the stories just because he wanted to brag playfully.

“Mm, sure.” Shiro smirked at him, one brow up. Lance fought with a smug smile tugging at the corner of his lips and shrugged. “Well, okay. But the story of how I made one of my former classmates do a lap dance in front of everyone on the rooftop of the college building when one of the parties was taking place is true.”

“How did you make him do that? And why?”

“Well, he was drunk. And I told him that we would like seeing him do that. And to answer your second question…” Lance rubbed his chin and then a grin appeared on his facial features. “We were dumb students, barely out of puberty. Who knows why I came up with that back then?!”

“Did he give you a lap dance as well?” Shiro’s eyes glinted in curiosity as he was slyly trying to get more out of Lance and his days as immature college student. He pressed his lips together, suppressing an amused smile. “Given that he was drunk, he’d probably done something to the person who got him into this situation in the first place.”

Lance swallowed hard, remembering all the awesome shits that happened back at that night. Shiro, that cocky guy.

Two could play this game.

He licked his bottom lip and bit it then as his upper body fell forward and his face came closer to Shiro’s. Lids narrowed down, he whispered, “Maybe, maybe not? Actually I don’t remember anymore. Neither was I the most sober back at that time, you know?”

Before he’d fully realized what he was doing right now, Lance got his senses back and backed up, the physical distance between him and Shiro grew as he went back to his prior usual expression.

Shiro didn’t seem to have minded Lance’s little change of his attitude, actually quite enjoying it. There was no sign of disgust that mirrored in his face when he said the next thing. “I bet you used to be a troublemaker as student.”

Having gotten his composure again, Lance leant back as he placed one leg over his other knee, adjusting his collar and wearing a self-assured expression. “Even if, at least I used to be the most handsome one.” He examined his long fingers and nails. He heard how Shiro half snorted, half laughed. “Every girl wanted to go out with me.”

“But the gentleman you are, you turned down most of them?”

“Exactly. I was taken most of the time in my college years. That’s enough of me. Tell me more about your time as a student. Smoked weed? Done drugs? Partied too hard?”

“I slayed everyone with my excellent grades.” he replied monotonously on purpose, tilting his head to the side as he beamed an innocent expression at Lance.

Lance rolled his eyes and huffed. “Boring.”

“Right. Oh, I also caught two of my professors doing it in the classic literature room once.”

“Oh?” Now Lance had gone to fully attentive mode, scooting closer to Shiro as his eyes got big and his mouth fell open. With no more than a bit space left between them, covering his mouth with one hand, still looking surprised as he mumbled behind his fingers, voice sounding muffled through them, “What did you do when you caught them? How did they react?”

Shiro shrugged. “They didn’t know I was watching.”

“Goodness.” Lance couldn’t hold back a howl and laughed then. “Don’t tell me you watched them fucking.”

That face. That cocky grin, those dangerously glowing eyes like the ones of a predator and the amusement trailing in Shiro’s expression threw Lance off totally.

“I—”

Before Shiro could start, the fathers were interrupted by Louis’ voice, calling out for Lance. Lance stood up and welcomed his son into his arms, asking him what the matter was.

Why did children always have to interrupt adults in the most inappropriate situations ever?

“Daddy, I’m hungry.” Louis whined, rubbing his eyes as fatigue slowly sneaked through his body.

Finn had approached Shiro and tugged at his legs. “Papa, I’m hungry too.”

Shiro knelt down and petted his son’s head. “Okay. I’m going to make something to eat. Maybe Lance and Louis want to stay here for dinner?” His gaze reach up and their eyes met.

“Thanks, but I have to turn down a yet another invitation of yours. I promised Louis to cook him his favourite meal today.” He flipped his gaze to his son who was already drowsing. Once he’d smell his favourite meal, he’d be awake again.

“I see. Well then, Finn. Say goodbye to Lance and Louis.”

“Bye, Louis. Bye, Lance.” Finn waved at them.

Louis waved back weakly, rubbing his eyes again. Lance said his goodbye and made his way to leave. Shiro followed him to the front door, opening it for him. Though there was something nagging his mind nonstop and he felt like he couldn’t leave before he had an answer. So that was why he stopped in his tracks at the door and turned to Shiro for one last time. Covering Louis’ ear, he asked him in a whisper, “Say, you didn’t answer my question yet. That thing with your two profs having done it and you having witnessed it. Did you watch them the whole time or…?” His teeth played with the bottom lip, signalling how much Lance wanted to know. Surely, this was something he didn’t experience himself when he used to be younger.

Shiro huffed a chuckle, stepping closer to Lance as he replied to him with their faces staying close to each other, “Maybe, maybe not. Actually I don’t remember anymore.”

Lance went silent, totally and utterly speechless for being beaten by his own words he had said to Shiro first, having to accept defeat.

But as fast as he fell into that state of defeat as fast did he gain his confidence again. He let out a little huff through his nose. “Fine. Then don’t tell me. I don’t want to know it anymore anyway. Guess we’re even now.”

“I can only agree.” Shiro had his head leant against the door, looking sweetly at Lance. “Stay safe on your way home, you two.”

Those few words were enough to catch him off guard and Lance found himself stammering and turning red. “T-That sounds as if we were a married couple. We’re far away from that. Hell, we didn’t even exchange phone numbers.”

“Right!” Shiro snapped his fingers, as though he reminded something again. “Would you mind if we did that?”

For some unknown reason Lance’s body felt weird; cozy chills were rushing through his body right now and he was feeling strangely well talking to Shiro. “No. Of course not. Give me your phone.” He tried sounding and acting cool, but technically speaking even Shiro’s neighbours could smell that Lance was failing at that.

“Okay.”

***

The next few weeks were a very eventful for both Lance and Shiro. They would have never guessed that it would come this far, but they didn’t complain about the outcome at all because it was to each of their favour.

But let’s start from the scratch.

So after their first encounter, the two single fathers kept being in touch (of course they did; after all their sons had become the best of best friends), spending much time together. When time allowed it they’d always go to either Shiro’s or Lance’s house, spending their time together. Usually Lance and Shiro would play together with their sons, watch movies for kids with them – one time they even visited the zoo –, or cook. Latter was an activity they did many times; the little kids helping their fathers out preparing meal (in other words: they would eat some of the food beforehand), while Shiro and Lance were working in the kitchen.

Just like today.

“Louis, don’t eat all of the chopped tomatoes, please. I have to use them for the salad soon.” Lance told his son from the kitchen counter where he cut chicken breast to quarters as Shiro washed and chopped vegetables.

Their sons were sitting at the kitchen table after having helped out washing some of the veggies.

“Yeeeeeeees.” Louis said nonchalantly as he stuffed another piece of tomato into his mouth—doing the exact opposite of what his dad asked him.

“Same goes for you, Finn.” Shiro spoke to his son who was about to take a slice of the red vegetable as well. He halted once to look at his father, but not much later he ate it anyway.  

“Geez. If it goes on like that, they’ll be full by the time the proper meal is finished.” Shiro shook his head lightly, sighing.

“Perks of being a father.” was all Lance retorted, putting the chicken into a hot pan, frying it in hot oil.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m complaining about being a father.”

“I didn’t accuse you of that. What I was trying to say is that even if your own child is difficult to deal with sometimes, noisy, stubborn, at the end of a day you’ll always realize how much you actually love them. Because children are precious. We all used to be children as well.”

There was a little silence where Shiro looked at Lance in astonishment. “That was… put so well into words. You said it so beautifully. And you’re right.” He placed a hand on his shoulder, praising Lance like that.

Lance responded with an almost inaudible hum, shifting his attention to the meat in the pan. He became slightly flushed by this, hotness colouring his face a light pink as feelings fluttered in his stomach. He hadn’t been quite sure about that up until now, but there was no doubt to it anymore. There wasn’t any other explanation to it than this.

Yeah… Lance had the bad luck to have fallen in love with this gorgeous man standing next to him.

Bad luck because he was certain that his feelings were one-sided. While he himself was a person who was very open when it came to sexuality and sexual preferences, he couldn’t imagine Shiro being the same. Yet, over the past few days he had caught himself thinking a lot about Shiro and how he’d make his life perfect if he were to be by his side, loving and cherishing him. One day, when he was home alone, he even dared jerking off to the thought of him, but afterwards there was nothing else left than guilt, weighing him down and depressing him because his unrequited love was no more than pain.

It hurt. It actually stung inside his chest, having to see the person he had a crush on almost every day and some days even for hours. Oh damn, why did he have to fall in love with him?

He appreciated it very much having Shiro as friend, yes, and he didn’t want it to be any different. But at the same time he didn’t know what to do with these feelings that wanted Shiro to be more to him than solely a “friend”.

“S-Salt.” His mind having eventually cut itself off from its short journey to the past and the review of his own feelings, Lance walked to one of the cupboards behind him – which meant that Shiro’s hand released from his shoulder – and took out salt and peppershaker. “It needs salt and pepper.” He came back with the two needed spices and added them to the frying chicken. Shiro probably couldn’t see it well because of his lowered head, but Lance’s mood had actually changed, his face showing off slight sadness now.

But nevertheless he figured that something was different. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Lance answered quickly – too quickly – locking his eyes with Shiro’s, but a split second later he regretted it. Looking into the beauty of Shiro’s eyes, shining so pretty, and his plumb lips that were so inviting made it harder for him to endure his restraints.

 _Don’t do anything reckless_ , he told himself, _Shiro doesn’t love you_.

“I’m totally alright. Are the vegetables ready to be boiled?” He attempted changing the topic without having it come off as weird.

“Um, yeah.” Shiro turned his back at him, longing for the board where the chopped vegetables were set. His hands stilled at some point for a while, mind stuck in  thoughts.

Thoughts that included Lance and how Shiro had fallen in love with him.

Not only Lance but also Shiro had developed feelings for the other over the weeks. He as well was uncertain of Lance’s reaction to his love because who knew whether he’d be disgusted at it afterwards or if it would only make their friendship complicated once he’d confess to him and find out that his love was one-sided. So instead of saying anything to Lance, Shiro had opted to leave everything as it was – sacrificing his own most personal needs for that – and carrying on as ever. Secretely - though he still refused to admit it - he hoped that this “love” for Lance would subside and turn out to only be a phase.

But the moment he saw into Lance’s sad face just now, it shattered his heart into thousands of pieces. How much he had wanted to hug him and kiss his sadness away, but there hadn’t been any other option for him than to oppress this urge. He had little to no belief that Lance was actually feeling remotely close to what Shiro was feeling for him.

What both didn’t know, though, was that their love was mutual.

They were in love with the other, but neither of them did know that.

And since both of them were scared of risking their friendship that had a solid basis and was built on trust, they kept their feelings hidden and a secret, locking them away.

“Here.” Shiro had finally turned to Lance again, holding up the chopping board filled with the content Lance had asked for. Shiro had managed to get rid of his thoughts quickly and wear his usual expression again. There was a little upcurve of his lips, though his inner self was utterly upset.

“Thanks.” Lance grabbed the board and spilled the content into a pot. It didn’t go unnoticed by both of them that their fingers had touched very slightly just now and while Lance had been unsure of what to do, Shiro had wished no more than to take Lance’s hand into his own and graze his lips over it, peppering it with tender kisses.

But he didn’t and Lance didn’t show any reaction to it either, so the cooking went on as usual. And yet inwardly the two fathers were yearning for promiscuity.

Approximately thirty minutes later all four of them were situated at the dining table, eating, the adults exchanging some words here and then while the kids dedicated themselves fully to eating. The conversation between Shiro and Lance was ragged and marked by awkward moments sometimes, Lance poking at his food while Shiro ate it silently, though he didn’t have much appetite, since he could sense that something was up with Lance, and that was what upset him and even worse was that he didn’t know what to do.

He didn’t do anything, which ached his emotional side a lot. How much he wanted to embrace Lance and console him as he’d whisper soothing words into his ear, easing him from whatever weight he had to bear. If only he would know that the reason for Lance’s sadness was Shiro himself.

And Lance didn’t wish for more than to confess to Shiro and live together with him, raising their sons together. But nothing of this sounded any close to realistic, thus he didn’t even start trying and mourned in self-pity instead.

Despite of everything, not much later he found himself staring at Shiro indiscreetly – if Shiro were to raise his head, Lance would be caught right away –, chin resting on his palm that was propped on his elbow, sighing loudly once as he gawked at him, feeling how the pain in his chest twisted cruelly.

Shiro did notice that he was being stared at, but out of anxiety and his unkowledge of what to do once he caught Lance in the act, he let it happen and didn’t think too much about it; the latter being a lot harder to do.

Two grown-ass men having fallen in love with each other kept their love a secret because of the fear of getting rejected.

How much worse can this love story get?

Lance was interrupted in his pining by Louis who had dropped some of the food and smudged his shirt. He cleaned off his son with a napkin and didn’t notice that he was the one being stared at now. The tables have turned.

While helping Louis out, feeding him the rest of his meal before it would meet the table, clothing or floor again, Shiro observed Lance’s expression, attempting to find out what exactly it was that bugged him. It had something to do with him, he figured, that much was for sure.

“Lance, are you alright?” he tried, earning a confused face coming from Lance as response.

“What do you mean?” Lance smiled insecurely. “Why do you think I’m not okay?”

 _That’s a weird answer_ , Shiro thought. “I was just asking because you are so still. Not in the mood to talk much today?”

He averted his gaze, putting the spoon he was using to feed Louis on the table. His son snapped it and began eating by himself again. “I think I’m indeed sick. Well, somehow. I don’t have much appetite right now, my stomach is protesting.”

Lance felt so guilty lying to Shiro, but part of him didn’t think of it as a lie. Lance was sick.

_He was love sick._

“Get well soon, then.” Shiro had his doubts, but it would be rude of him to question Lance’s well-being, that’d harm their friendship to some point.

He wasn’t allowed to destroy what they had.

If they couldn’t be a couple, then they should stay friends. At the very least this had to be secured.

“Thanks. I will.” Lance’s voice was weaker than usual.

“If that’s the case, it’s better to leave now. We’re done eating.” Shiro stood up and glanced down to his son who'd eaten as much as he could. Right now, he was playing with the fork silently, giving one word answers to Louis who’d tell him random things between his bites. “Let me wash the dishes and then we’ll be gone.”

“No.” Lance stood up abruptly. He hesitated with his words at first, muttering incoherent sounds before a logic sentence would pass his lips. “You don’t have to do the dishes. You also don’t have to go now. Stay. I don’t feel as worse as that. You got it wrong.”

Shiro who had been listening to only half of the words Lance said had already reached the kitchen and put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. After that, he went back to his son and carried him in his arms as he approached Lance, a sympathetic smile featuring his face. “It’s better if you rest well now. Call me if it gets worse and I’ll help where I can. But as for now having to deal with your own son is already enough when being in such a state. I don’t want to burden you.”

“B-But you aren't…” The remaining words were stuck in his throat, merging with the lump that formed there.

Shiro stroked his cheek. “Get well.” And not much later he’d left and Lance hadn’t been able to prevent him from going, glued to the floor, unable to order his legs to move even an inch. When he was left alone, there was only one thing that busied his mind.

_The way of Shiro’s hand having touched his face softly just now remained as a bittersweet thought in his head for a long time._

***

It was a Monday when Lance and Shiro brought their sons to kindergarten as usual, today being one of those days where they’d do it at the same time. They met in front of the kindergarten, gave each other one look before they went inside and said their goodbyes to Louis and Finn, and walked off after that; doing so together.

“How are you today?” Shiro asked that usual question he’d do whenever they encountered and didn’t know what to say—which was apparently the case the past few days.

“Fine.” _As fine as emotionally possible._ “You?”

“Same.”

Shiro had his hands pocketed into his jacket while Lance had his thumbs hooked on his jeans pockets, slouching his way forward.

It was more than clear to both of them that the once easy-going mood around them was gone long ago and whenever they met there would always be that excruciating tension pressing them down and making it hard for them to act naturally and not stiffly.

However, neither of them had a proper solution of what to do. Neither Lance nor Shiro had a clue about what exactly had to be changed to go back to normal. In the end they thought that not having fallen in love with the other would have been the best.

Problem was that they couldn’t and didn’t want to undo that.

“Guess I’ll just relax today.” Shiro began in order to break the unbearable tension. “After all, it’s my day off.” His head whipped to Lance, waiting for a reaction.

“Same here.” He met with Shiro’s eyes, managing to force a little upcurve of his lips.

“What a coincidence. If you don’t have anything planned in particular… how about killing time together?”

At this very moment, Lance should come up with an excuse and turn Shiro down. It would hurt him less if he didn’t spend too much time with Shiro beside their usual days where all four of them would meet and do all kinds of activites. It would harm Lance less if he didn’t fall deeper into that hole of unrequited love.

“Sure.”

***

In the end, Lance had ended up at Shiro’s and agreed on watching an action film first and go to a sauna after that.

Right now, Shiro was flipping through all the DVDs he owned, back facing Lance as he told him what kind of movies he had to offer.

“Okay, I have comedy-action, mafias vs the police, from good guys to bad guys, aliens vs humans and a supernatural movie set in space. Pick one, Lance.”

At the sound of his own name, Lance snapped back to reality, realizing only now that he had been looking at Shiro’s well-formed and muscular back without paying too much attention to his words.

“Uh, what?” Puzzled, he scratched the back of his head as he asked that.

Shiro faced him now, looking at him a bit disappointed. Or was it sadness? Lance couldn’t tell. “I asked you to pick a movie. Which one do you wanna watch?”

Since he hadn’t listened to the descriptions Shiro gave him minutes ago, he randomly retorted with, “The last one.”

Happiness seemed to have taken over his facial emotions again. “Good choice.” He closed the distance between them, his upper arm touching Lance’s shoulder as he flipped the cover to the back, explaining, “I haven’t watched this one yet, but apparently it has something do with a group of people being in space and having to save the universe from an evil power.”

Again Lance couldn’t follow Shiro’s words much, his eyes focusing on Shiro’s eyes first and then his moving lips, ears shut off completely.

_He wanted him. He wanted Shiro so badly._

And before he knew it, one hand had placed itself on Shiro’s arm, tugging at his sleeve. “Shiro…” he said absentmindedly, his eyes still set on Shiro’s face, but his mind was lost somewhere in his head.

His eyes were big and begging when Shiro shifted his gaze down at him. “Hm?”

“Shiro…”

  
_‘Shiro, I love you.’_ Lance wanted to say, but couldn’t.

  
His fingernails dug into Shiro’s shirt, pressure being put on it, but not as much as to hurt him severely. Lance was just… so desperate.

_So desperately in love._

It may be that Shiro wondered what was going on, but deep in his mind he hoped that Lance’s behaviour had that one and only answer to it.

“Lance?”

As if a codeword was uttered, Lance let go off him right away and in one swift movement, scolding himself inwardly. He grabbed fistfuls of his hair, shaking his head. “Sorry. I’m so damn sorry. This was inappropriate of me, I’m sorry.” He repeated those last two words as his mind gave up functioning to his favour right now, so that Lance was left as a stuttering and unintelligible mess, embarrassing himself in front of his crush. Or so he thought.

“Lance, hey, Lance. Don’t worry.” Shiro tried his best calming him down by taking his hands in his own, thumbs stroking the back of it as his face moved closer to his to established eye contact with Lance whose head was lowered to the ground, a blush burning under his cheeks. “Look at me, Lance.” His voice was coarse and low because Shiro as well didn’t want more than to openly show his love for that guy in front of him who was so close to losing his sanity.

Lance didn’t comply, staying silent as he continued keeping his head down. He bit down on his lips, hindering an ugly, desperate huff to roll off his lips that was supposed to tell himself how pathetic he was.

“Hey…” Fingers hooked under his chin and lift his head up slowly, until a pair of dark eyes locked with his. There was a moment or two in which they didn’t do else than to stare at each other, so loving, their eyes speaking for themselves; expressing what kind of love the two men felt for the other. And then Shiro’s face moved closer, whispering a soft “Lance” before their lips met in a chaste kiss.

At that moment, all the burden Lance had to carry the past few weeks were dropped from his shoulders and a wave of relief and bliss washed over him as his mind slowly figured that this was really happening and that his love for Shiro hadn’t been one-sided.

It was Shiro who believed that he had had to suffer the most right before the kiss, for he had been awfully scared that his move could have interpreted wrong by Lance and yet he had risked it because he couldn’t hold his feelings back anymore.

The kiss that didn’t contain more than their lips laying ontop of each other lightly, barely touching, didn’t last long; Shiro parted from him after only a few seconds.

“You…?” Lance breathed, utterly overwhelmed.

_‘You are in love with me as well?’_

“Yeah.” Shiro whispered, “and it seems that you feel the same for me. I’m so glad. You don’t even know how scared I was if the opposite had been the case.”

Lance shook his head lightly. His arms wound around Shiro’s neck. “Don’t worry about that. I like you, too. I like you very much.”

Their lips connected for another kiss, but this time both opened their eyes after a while, half-lidded, prying as lust gloomed in their orbs. It didn’t take long and Lance’s body was pressed against a wall, their kiss turning wild and hungry, low moans escaping their mouths.

Crotches rubbing against each other, Shiro lowered himself a bit to plant kisses and licks and hickeys to Lance’s toned skin, one hand fisting his brown locks as the other pressed against his hips, keeping him in place, even though his wobbly knees had other plans that didn’t include standing for long anymore.

“Mnh, ah, Shiro…” Lance moaned lowly, mouth agape and head tilted back as some more sounds of satisfaction roared up his throat. “I’ve waited so long for this to happen. I can’t wait any longer. Let me feel your skin on mine. Please. Please, Shiro. “

Shiro hummed a response, mouth busy marking Lance’s throat with red bruises of affectionate love. Yet he walked backwards and pulled Lance along, throwing him onto the couch and climbing ontop of him. Lance scooted back on the sofa until he reached the other end of it so that Shiro – who was way taller than him – wouldn’t have any problems hovering over him.

He gasped when Shiro gave his hard crotch a firm squeeze, closing his legs in reflex.

“Don’t wanna?” Shiro growled, teasing.

Lance shook his head. “I wanna, I wanna. Though this will be my very first time having gay sex.”

“That’s no problem. It’s my first time with a guy as well. So the worst that can happen is _both of us_ fucking up.”

Lance let out a little chuckle because Shiro was damn right. “Alright.”

The sex they had was gentle and careful. Shiro had fingered him open first and made sure not to inflict aching pain to Lance when his dick pushed into him, hips rocking back and forth at a steady pace. Lance’s body on the other hand was splayed on the whole sofa, hands and legs spread widely—the latter to make it easier for Shiro to penetrate him. Mouth open, he let out sounds of pleasure, chanting Shiro’s name occasionally, which sounded like music to Shiro’s ears. When they reached their climax, they came together and with a loud howl; for the first time Lance got himself get filled with white fluid that felt sticky inside him and for the first time did Shiro release his shot inside a man, but in the end the gender didn’t matter to him at all.

As long as he loved the person he was doing this with.

There had been a second round and admittedly that one had more force and ferocity. This time Shiro took Lance from behind; there was hair pulling and hand tying (he had used Lance’s lavender scarf to tie him up), and louder and more unrestrained moans echoed through the room as Shiro’s cock fucked pleasure into Lance’s ass, growling with greedy want and lust. Lance came first into Shiro’s pumping hand and Shiro followed right after. Their bodies collapsed onto the couch in exhaustion, breathing heavily as their orgasm ebbed away.

Shiro kissed Lance’s left shoulder blade, wrapping his arms over his upper body and holding him close to his own body. Lance giggled like a kid when Shiro pepped his neck with more kisses, some of them tickling. A content smile appeared on Shiro’s face at the sound of Lance laughing.

Since he hadn’t heard him laughing for such a long time, it made him even happier to listen to Lance chuckling.

A little comfortable silence before Lance asked, “Did you feel just as down as me during… well, you know… _during that time_?”

“Yes.” Shiro’s fingers massaged Lance’s scalp. “I was constantly torn between holding you close to me and spilling out everything I was feeling for you, and not saying anything because it would have been devastating for both of us, if I had been the only one loving you romantically.”

“But now we know that we’re feeling the same. You don’t even know how much that relieves me.”

“I can imagine. I’m sure I’m just as relieved as you are.”

With that, this topic seemed to have been closed and Shiro moved on to a fact that was unexplained. “Even if the answer is obvious, I’ll ask you nevertheless. Sauna is cancelled, right? “

“Technically speaking, we did something that made us sweat… _a bit_. In other words, we just replaced it with something else.”

They smirked, and Shiro pressed a last kiss on his temple. “Let’s rest a bit.”

There was no objection coming from Lance, so they both fell into a light slumber.

Hours later they woke up (Shiro more willing to than Lance), still arm in arm, first thing to do was yawning.

“We have to get up, Lance.” Shiro rubbed one eye as he nudged his lover’s face with his nose. “C’mon.”

“Mm.” Lance hummed, brows knitted as he tried to sleep a little longer.

“What time is it even?”

“It’s ‘Let-me-have-more-sleep’-o’clock.” came Lance’s reply.

Sighing, Shiro turned his head to the clock on the wall. Suddenly, his body jumped up and he fell off the sofa, ripping the blanket off of Lance’s body. “Oh, shit!”

Freezing slightly from the cold air that was hitting his bare body now, Lance raised his upper body and yawned again. “What’s the matter? You’re so loud.”

“We’re late. We have to pick up Louis and Finn from kindergarten.”

From one second to the other Lance was wide awake. “Holy shit!”

  
“Cursing won’t help you now. We have to take a quick shower and leave soon. Hurry up. We can’t waste any time anymore.” Shiro stood up and rolled the blanket into a ball, throwing it to one corner of the couch as he helped Lance climbing out. Not that there was a need to, but just out of courtesy. Lance kissed him a thanks and was the first one using the bathroom. To this, Shiro couldn’t do else than to watch how Lance aimed for the bathroom, smiling smitten.

***

Three years later and everything was just as fine as before. Lance and Shiro were still together, being in love more than ever. Now that their sons have grown older, Lance and Shiro had explained to them cautiously that they were a couple, even though both of them were men. It took some time for the kids to grow familiar to it, but important was the fact that they did and it didn’t seem as if they got bullied in school for having parents that didn’t meet general expectations. In all honesty, this was nothing to complain about. In contrary, they were more than glad. Having moved together and living a more than decent life in happiness gifted the patchwork family with more happiness and everyone cradled in contentment.

  
Two golden rings gracing Lance and Shiro’s ring fingers were the cherry on top and made everything perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you wanna to know:  
> 1\. Yes, Lance did receive a lap dance from that drunk student  
> 2\. Yes, Shiro watched his profs getting off till the end. He even jerked off to it lol. Don't ask me why. I decided that that on a whim.
> 
> Talk Shance to me on tumblr: [pinkheichou](http://www.pinkheichou.tumblr.com)


End file.
